To Not Care
by Chocolate and Drama
Summary: Helen Magnus was crying, choked sobs coming in loud gasps that echoed across the painfully empty room. - Set after EoN part 2


(Set right after the ending of EoN pt.2)

A/N First off, I am well aware there are no quotation marks, neatly indented when- a- new -person speaks paragraphs, etc, etc. I know this is not grammatically correct, but I felt it just... worked... and stuff, y'know? Anywho, this was going to be a short, few hundred word one shot, but then it... grew. I also know Magnus is very OOC, but bear in mind she's just had her world shattered. Asterisks indicate a change in POV. You smart people you should be able to figure out who it is, if not, I made a sneaky list at the bottom of the story. Um, so yeah, enjoy.

P.S Ashley isn't really dead, but they think she is. Thought you'd like to know. Okay, now read.

She was sobbing, a rare thing for the normally well-kept British woman.

Helen Magnus was crying, choked sobs coming in loud gasps that echoed across the painfully empty room.

Her eyes were red, her hair disheveled, and the slashes on her arm had not stopped bleeding. But she didn't care, didn't care whether she lived or died, whatever happened to her in this world that held no meaning. She didn't care. It was a glorious feeling that she hadn't succumbed to in so long. Why should she care? Why should she care about anything, after her world had come crashing down, had ended so violently after it's dizzy spin into oblivion. Her daughter, the only reason she had kept on living, her wonderful, amazing, shining daughter had died. Had sacrificed so much for a woman who deserved none of it, for the sobbing mess she called 'Mum'.

Her very last words had been the reverent title Helen knew she did not deserve. Mothers were supposed to protect and defend until their last breath. But she had failed, so irreparably failed the blond angel that looked up to her until her very last moments... She hadn't protected Ashley. She hadn't gotten her back from the Cabal, she had let those monsters hurt her baby, and the pain and the shame and the guilt came crashing around her in waves that did nothing to help stop her tears. Eventually she slips into unconsciousness, emotions and blood loss making her light headed.

And that's how they found her, crumpled on the floor. She woke up to their shouts, but the concerned cries and alarm evident in their worried voices meant nothing to her. Why should they care?

But they do care. About the outcome of the mess that had broken their leader, and of the broken woman herself, and so relived she isn't dead, she hasn't become victim to the carnage the Super Abnormals wrought. Where did they go? They ask, of the merciless creatures who had made their life so painful, and the one unwilling who had turned the pain into a living hell. But she can tell they care only of Ashley, that they have noticed the absence of her corpse in the room...

Gone. She's gone. Gone. She mutters that word over and over, sounding like a mad woman. Will and Henry, who have pulled her to her feet gently, share a look. Magnus is making no sense, they must be thinking. What does she mean, Gone? Escaped and alive, like they hope? Or gone forever, a nagging, dark truth they know they must face...

The rest is so fuzzy, faces and words dancing before her blurring vision. She's led to a infirmary bed, tucked gently in the white covers, wound bandaged, blood washed off, all with a loving hand she doesn't want and shouldn't have. Somewhere in all that she stops crying, succumbing to fatigue. She sleeps, and only wishes the darkness and peace could last forever, not wanting to wake up in a world without her daughter.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~

They were gone, the beings that had killed and slaughtered, and rose hell for them and so many others, were gone. There was a shining moment of silence as they disappeared into nothing, a moment that radiated accomplishment. They had done it. They had won- at least over these few. But there were still three more, three more who in Will, Henry and Biggie's short time in the basement, could have totally destroyed the upper floors. The accomplished feeling was soon replaced with absolute dread as they realized just who had been left upstairs with the other three... Magnus. They could care less of Tesla and Druitt, but _Helen Magnus_, their boss, their friend, a woman who had shaped their lives so much, had saved them time and time again, was in danger. They dashed off down the corridors, with a simultaneously goal in mind- Find Magnus-, and each with a growing feeling of dread at the possibilities...

The smell of blood hung heavy around the door to the main lab, and made Henry's stomach twist. Big guy could smell it too, and so they dashed in, Will following them without a word. Blood, fear, and sorrow hung heavy in the air. Magnus's and Ashley's scent danced in the air, which stopped the werewolf for a minute, surprised. Ashley's scent, laughter, violets, and gunpowder, had long faded after she was captured. Whatever had happened to her had blocked the scent. But her scent, mixed with fear and determination, was a curious sign that _Ash_, his little sister, had just been in here. But this mystery was soon pushed out of his mind as they ran toward the bloody, body laying in the middle of the room. It was Magnus, bloody and unconscious. _Or dead_, the thought came unbidden to his mind. But their shouts, Magnus, Magnus, Magnus, over and over again hoping she'd wake up, that she was not dead like so many others, rang in his ears in a cadence of horror. But her blue eyes were open, her chest rising with breath and _life, _and the horror and dread was replaced with joy and relief. But where were the super abnormals? One was dead, lying off to the side, having escaped their notice. That left two. They helped her up, wary of her bloody arm, thankful that was the only wound she had. Where are they? Will and him ask, wanting to make sure there were none of the monsters, lurking in the halls. _Where is she?_ Henry wants to ask, knowing one of the two left is Ashley.

_She's gone. She's gone. She's gone._ Magnus repeats in a broken, hysterical voice. She's awake, leaned heavily against Biggie who is helping her walk to the infirmary, and unreadable look on his face. Will and Henry exchange a worried look. Magnus look broken, tears still running down her face, face red, hair disheveled. Henry could count on one hand the number of times he had seen her cry. Whatever had happened, it had been enough to break her. How many times did she have to use the gun? The bleeping contraption had been the death sentence for many of the abnormals, had her daughter been included in the count? _Magnus,_ Will says sternly. _We need to know if any of them are left._ Magnus stops for a minute and whispers a barely audible response.

_No._

She's gone- suddenly makes sense. Ashley, Ashley's gone, and the heavy weight of the final death crashes onto them, erasing any small hope they had left of her survival . But they don't have the luxury of breaking like Magnus. Their thoughts are interrupted as the two men they had all but forgot about came running up.

What the hell? They ask. What's going on? Helen, is she okay, where is the rest,_ what the hell,_ Druitt and Tesla ask, with the excessive expletives coming from the Serbian himself. She's alive they see, but they themselves look surprised to see her so broken. But they catch on, and the questions stop. They know Ashley must have died, as nothing else could have broken Helen so much. Druitt offers quietly to teleport her to the infirmary, and they accept, about to walk the rest of the way themselves before realizing there was another not- quite unconscious body in the main lab.

~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Druitt arrives in the empty infirmary room clutching the half-unconscious Helen in his arms. With a bitter thought he realizes this is the closest she's willingly been to him in well over a hundred years. His medical knowledge comes back to him, and in a methodical pattern he bandages Helen's bleeding wound and tucks her in the white infirmary bed, with careful precision. He dares not attempt to change her out of the bloody shirt, so after he's finished, he has a few moments of silence, the others not there yet. She's not quite asleep yet, and she's staring up at him with those blue eyes he used to get lost in. Now, they're full of heartbreak and pain.

_I'm sorry._ She says, which makes him want to laugh. What on earth does she have to be sorry for? So he asks _why._

She was your daughter too, she answers.

He is surprised by her answer. But he supposed old hatred and betrayal mean nothing if you've had your world shattered. But she _was_ his daughter too. A fiery woman he never got to know, and never will. But even when Jack had her tied to a chair, there was a part of him that still savored the time spent with her. His child. His daughter. And now she's gone too. He tries to hold back tears, but when he sees Helen has slipped into unconsciousness, he lets them fall. Alone in the room with his sorrow, John Druitt, Jack the Ripper, cries for love long lost.

(sneaky list of POVS)

Magnus, Henry, Druitt. Dontcha just feel clever?


End file.
